Home > Employment Numbers Revised, But Not The Way The Right-Wing Predicted

Employment Numbers Revised, But Not The Way The Right-Wing Predicted

The February unemployment report included revisions to baseline data, showing that more jobs were added in the final months of 2012 than initially estimated. This news follows consistent right-wing speculation[1] on the validity of pre-election jobs data.

The Bureau for Labor statistics released its unemployment situation summary[2] for the month of January, showing that unemployment has remained "essentially unchanged" at 7.9 percent, adding 157,000 jobs.

More interesting in the report, however, were the revisions to previously estimated jobs data. The number of jobs was revised upward for every month in 2012 except August and July. Overall, the revisions showed a net increase in the number of jobs when compared to initial estimates.

Furthermore, over-the-month changes in total employment were revised upwards in the months leading up to the election. Over-the-month changes for September, October, and November were revised upward by 6,000, 23,000, and 86,000 jobs, respectively.

The positive benchmark revisions come after months of right-wing speculation that -- somehow -- Democrats were "cooking the books" to produce positive reports, ostensibly to help President Obama win the election. Right-wing media figures repeatedly claimed[3] that the October jobs report was phony[4], claiming that the number of jobs added would certainly be revised downward[5] after the election[6].

Today's data shows that right-wing media was right - the jobs numbers were revised, just not in the way they predicted.